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Wednesday, August 18, 2010

House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, called for an investigation of those opposing the Mosque at Ground Zero. Come again?

This from a woman who opposes asking a suspected illegal alien for documentation of citizenship? She demands to know who is “funding” it. Does she live in the same country that was attacked September 11, 2001, the Great Satan, the good old US of A? Does she not understand that the American people are not the enemy?

Just as she missed the mark last year by calling the Tea Party movement “Astroturf”, Ms. Pelosi finds it hard to believe that Americans are capable of spontaneous outbursts of righteous rage and indignation. Somehow she does not get that New Yorkers who saw their friends and loved ones unjustly slaughtered on 9-11, can actually feel offended and hurt by this apparent reminder that “we gotcha” from the Islamic world.

If the Mosque is a gesture of peace, friendship and rapprochement to New York, the message is not getting through. They need to make it clear to us how this will make things better. On the other hand, if this project is, as the name “Cordoba” implies, an allusion to Islamic victory and conquest on American soil, they are asking for trouble.

And trouble they will get. I’m not threatening or saying that it is right. I’m just sayin’. New Yorkers are tough people and they won’t stand for having humiliation and insult rubbed in their faces. Perhaps this is what their Boston-bred mayor fails to get, as well.

As a libertarian, I support the private property rights of the developers to build as they please on their own land. Likewise, I oppose government intervention to block this project without due cause such as knowledge that builders will use the site to further jihad in the U.S. Libertarians are fearful of giving government license to persecute unpopular individuals or movements. After all, we cannot be far down the list.

On the other hand, I have no issue with private, free market efforts to block the mosque such as blacklisting or boycotting any person or company that contributes to the construction or maintenance of the Mosque. The threat that “you’ll never work in this town again” is pretty potent when that town is New York. The rest of America should back Gotham up on this.

Still, the question lingers, “what is the Left’s fascination and patronage of Islam all about?” Liberals will rush to crucify any American who makes a public display of their Judeo-Christian faith. Just try praying on the field after a high school football game or putting up a Christmas tree in front of town hall and see what happens.

Surely Liberals must know that Islamic nations are among the world’s least liberal.

In the Islamic world women are truly second class citizens and homosexuals might be better off dead. Freedom of religion is non-existent; in fact one religion is compulsory. This might be tough for the humanist-atheists to handle. And freedom of speech is a no-no. Say goodbye to Hollywood.

The only thing that I could figure that the Left finds attractive in Islam is that it is restrictive system that represses individual freedom for the supposed greater good of the community. That sounds a lot like the Obama-Pelosi-Reid legislative agenda.

LEBRON JAMES cleaned up to cover the latest issue of GQ Magazine.
Apparently he can handle the heat. Did I ever tell you I LOVE men who
have beards? But I’m growing to hate men in earrings. Sighs. I’m trying
to balance it all out. LEBRON talks about returning to play in Cleveland and CHARLES BARKLEY’s comments. Check out all the deets and pics after the jump kids.

On Cavs Owner Dan Gilbert:

LeBron: “I don’t
think he ever cared about LeBron. My mother always told me: ‘You will
see the light of people when they hit adversity. You’ll get a good
sense of their character.’ Me and my family have seen the character of
that man.”

On growing up rooting for Chicago and Jordan:

LeBron: “It’s not
far, but it is far. And Clevelanders, because they were the bigger city
- kids when we were growing up, looked down on us.… So we didn’t
actually like Cleveland. We hated Cleveland growing up. There’s a lot
of people in Cleveland we still hate to this day.“

On Charles Barkley’s comments:

LeBron: “Charles was probably trying to be funny. It wasn’t funny to me.“

On the possibility of playing again in Cleveland:

LeBron: “If there
was an opportunity for me to return and those fans welcome me back,
that’d be a great story. Maybe the ones burning my jersey were never
LeBron fans anyway.“

Pictures of the wreckage show what appears to be North Korea's air force emblem [REUTERS/Yonhap]

An
aircraft that crashed in northeast China may have flown into the
country from neighbouring North Korea, regional media have suggested

South Korean and Chinese news agencies suggested on Wednesday that
the plane, which came down in Liaoning province, could have been a
fighter jet flown by a pilot attempting to defect.

"Based
on an initial assessment at the scene, an aircraft that crashed in
Chinese territory yesterday may be North Korean," China's state-run
Xinhua news agency said.
"Currently, the Chinese side is contacting the North Korean side about this matter."
Photographs of the wreckage on the internet appear to show the North Korean air force emblem beneath the aircraft's tail.

South
Korea's military said the plane was likely a MiG-21, citing radar
detection by its air force of the aircraft leaving a military airbase
in the North Korean city of Sinuiju, near the border with China.
"Radar images show the North Korean aircraft took off from the air
base in Sinuiju," an official in Seoul, who asked not to be named, was
reported to have said.

"According to the images, it appears to be a MiG-21," the official said.Defection rumours

South Korea's Yonhap News
Agency cited an unnamed intelligence official as saying the pilot may
have been attempting to defect to Russia.

The aircraft was said to have ploughed into an apple orchard in a
village, about 150km from the North Korean border on Tuesday, killing
its pilot.

"The engine was making a very strange noise and it was flying in a very weird way, with it's head up and rear down"Ning, a local witness

A witness said he saw the plane flying low over the area before it crashed.

"The engine was making a very strange noise and it was flying in a
very weird way, with it's head up and rear down,", a man named Ning was
quoted by The Associated Press news agency as saying.

"It looked like a piece of scrap iron flying in the sky."

He said that he heard from other villagers that the aircraft had flown from North Korea and that the pilot was killed on impact.

China is a neighbour and close supporter of North Korea, which depends on Beijing for food and energy aid.
However, ties have been strained in recent years, particularly since
the North resisted an international effort led by Beijing to persuade
it to give up its nuclear weapons programme.

In recent years, thousands of North Koreans facing hunger and
difficult living conditions at home have made the risky journey into
China, with many seeking eventual asylum in South Korea.

What is surprising in
this report of some 83 pages is how little of its content is actually
surprising.

For example, the report reminds us that, not only is
the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) a large force, but it is also
increasingly sophisticated. This sophistication is reflected
in its growing ability to conduct joint operations (i.e.,
operations involving land, sea, air, space, and cyber forces). It is
also reflected in its people, who are thinking carefully about the shape
of future wars, as reflected in the emphasis on “informatized war,”
i.e., the application of information technology to all aspects of
warfare, from command and control to logistics.
The
report also points out the growing
range of capabilities at the PLA’s disposal. This is not an army
that will rely on human wave attacks; it is one that is working on
anti-ship ballistic missiles, electronic and information warfare, and
space combat capabilities.

But
none of this is especially surprising. These “developments” have been
elemental to PLA modernization and expansion efforts for much of the
past two decades.

Perhaps this is the real news: The PLA has
enjoyed sustained growth in its resources, its capabilities, and its
sophistication for so long that we are no longer surprised by its
burgeoning reach and expanding envelope. There are individual
technologies, such as anti-ship ballistic missiles, that are being
pioneered by Chinese engineers, but we have become accustomed to China’s
overall efforts to become a true military power.
The question, in
this context, is no longer: “What will China do?” China clearly will
continue to expand its military as it sees fit.

Instead, the
question is: “What
will the United States do?” In this context, the delay in releasing
the report is troubling, especially as there were no major surprises
embodied within it. Like the proverbial frog in the pot, have we become
so accustomed to expanding Chinese capabilities that we think we
can afford to ignore them?

By Kevin
Mooney
Democrats are better prepared this time around for the mid-term
elections than they were in 1994 when they lost control of congress and a
sitting house speaker was defeated, The New York Times informs readers
in a piece that is replete with wishful
thinking and cheerleading.

“Unlike 1994, when Republicans shocked Democrats by capturing dozens
of seats held by complacent incumbents, there will be no sneak attacks
this year,” the report observes. “Democrats have sensed trouble for
more than a year, with the unrest from town-hall-style meetings last
August providing indisputable evidence for any disbelievers. The result
has been to goad many Democrats into better preparation: more
fund-raising, earlier advertising, lots of time on the campaign trail.”

This is partially true in that President Obama’s declining poll
numbers have not translated over into public enthusiasm for the
Republican Party. Special elections held earlier this year demonstrate
that Democrats who hold out against overspending can prevail over
uninspiring Republicans. Rep. Ike Skelton, a Missouri Democrat, is very
attuned to the policy preferences of his conservative district and
voted against several Obama initiatives. He is cited as an example here
of someone who Republicans will find difficult to dislodge. Fair
enough.

However, there is no escaping the growing danger to incumbent
Democrats who have been complicit in advancing unpopular public policy
measures.

The Cook Political report,
for instance, has seen an uptick in the number of House seats now
leaning Republican. It also envisions a scenario in which Republicans
could actually capture control of the Senate; something that was
unthinkable to most analysts at outset of 2009.

“We felt it was important to have a page where NRD readers could see
what their politicians were saying on Twitter,” says NRD Director Adam
Bitely. “A lot of folks that read our page don't use Twitter, and we
wanted to make sure that they could see what their elected officials
were Tweeting while also showing them that Twitter is more than just
celebrities ranting into cyberspace like P. Diddy and Chad Ochocinco.”

Like Bitely says, NRD’s Twitter page is great way to stay informed.
With more and more politicians and media outlets joining this social
media channel, it is an easy and fun way to stay current on issues and
follow the politicians who most interest you.

Today the Obama administration will begin a
discussion on how to overhaul our nationalized housing finance system.
Moderated by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Shaun Donovan,
secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the
"Conference on the Future of Housing Finance" seeks answers to what
went wrong in the U.S. housing market. This promises to be the next big
domestic policy debate—one that could mold housing finance for a
generation or more. But the early signs of where policy makers might be
headed are not promising.

A consensus is building around a
three-part grand bargain:

An explicit federal guarantee of a large portion of the
mortgage-backed securities created to finance American's home mortgages;

A tax on these securities to fund low-income housing
initiatives; and

A requirement that issuers of securities meet affordable housing
mandates.

This is a dead end for two reasons. First,
while supporters of an explicit federal guarantee tell us it will
never be called upon, Americans have read this book before and know how
it ends.

RANGEBURG, S.C. — Broke, jobless and berated by her mother for her
failings, Shaquan Duley killed her young sons, then strapped their
lifeless bodies into their car seats before rolling the vehicle into a
South Carolina river in a desperate cover-up attempt, authorities said.

On
Wednesday, the 29-year-old mother was expected to appear before an
Orangeburg County judge for an arraignment hearing on two murder
charges.

Duley's attorney, Carl B. Grant, said Wednesday morning
he hasn't had the opportunity to review any of the evidence against her.

"We
want everybody to keep an open mind and to understand that they don't
know the whole story," said Grant, who would not say what he discussed
in his first talk with his client.

Investigators were not
convinced when Duley said her sons, ages 2 years and 18 months, drowned
after her car plunged into a river. She ultimately confessed to killing
the toddlers, they say — not by dumping them in the water but by
suffocating them earlier with her own hands.

"She truly felt, 'If I
don't have these toddlers, I can be free,'" Orangeburg County Sheriff
Larry Williams said at a news conference Tuesday. "I think she was fed
up with her mother telling her she couldn't take care of the children,
or she wasn't taking care of the children and just wanted to be free."

Coroner
Samuetta Marshall told several media outlets Tuesday the older boy had
defensive wounds that suggested he had been in a struggle.

Though it hasn’t yet been confirmed by their reps, Chris
Brown and Usher are plotting a tour together,
according to their producer buds Jermaine Dupri and B.
Michael Cox, who let the news slip during a video
blog posted this morning (August 17).

“Usher and the boy Chris Brown going on tour…y’all know that, right?”
Cox said in the video. “They might don’t know that,” Dupri responded.
“I might have just gave y’all some exclusive sh*t!” Cox quipped.
Usher and Breezy seemingly confirmed the slip up on twitter, with Brown
tweeting, “What would you guys say if me and usher went on tour?,”
and Usher asking, “If you could see Usher perform live
with anyone – who would it be?”

The tour would be in support of Usher’s latest full-length album, Raymond
v Raymond, and his EP, Versus, out August 24. For Brown,
the tour would be an opportunity to perform on a much larger stage than
his own month-long Fan Appreciation Tour, which took place in November –
December 2009 following the release of his third album, Graffiti.

While some concerned boyfriends would want to help their girlfriends
curb their obscenely heavy drinking habits, Jeff Miranda actually thinks
lush-ery is pretty endearing. More on the “Jersey Shore”‘s
Snooki and her new beau after the jump.
Snooki’s new man recently told US Magazine:

“We hit it off really, really good. Nicole is actually
really cute and seems like a cool-a** person, even though she’s drunk
most of the time. She’s a real sweet girl.”

“She got mad at me because of my tongue ring. It reminded
her of [her ex-boyfriend] Emilio [Masella]. I took it out of my tongue
and threw it out into the beach. I took it right out for her.”

For the second year in a row,
Jay-Z
has been crowned 2010's "Hip-Hop Cash King" by Forbes, earning
a ridiculous $63 million over the past 12 months.
The mag's opening sentence describes Hov's status among hip-hop's
elite best: "Four years ago Jay-Z issued a lyrical taunt to his fellow
rappers: 'What you call money, I pay more in taxes.' Turns out his line
was more than just a boast."

Couldn't put it any better than that.

According to Forbes, the hip-hop superstar's income
puts him the 35% tax bracket, which means when tax season rolls around,
he'll be paying $22 million to the IRS. That's more than the total
earnings of any other rap star besides this year's second-ranked star,
Diddy.

"Jay-Z is in a league of his own right now," Ryan Schinman, chief of
Platinum Rye, the country's largest buyer of music and talent for
corporations, told Forbes. "There are very few artists of any
genre, not just hip-hop, who've created such brands for themselves."

His earnings are thanks to 2009's The Blueprint 3,
investments in his 40/40 nightclub chain, the Broadway show "Fela!", and
his stake in NBA's New Jersey Nets. However, his biggest money maker
came from the Blueprint 3 Tour, which grossed over $1 million per
concert this year.

The report says that the top 20 earners on this year's Cash Kings
list total around $300 million in earnings, despite a troubled economy
and a music industry continuing its downward spiral.

Bad Boy Entertainment mogul, Diddy, comes in a #2 this year, earning
$30 million, thanks to his deal with Diageo vodka, the parent company
behind Ciroc, as well as roles in television and film. Additionally, his
new Diddybeats headphones, his line established by Dr. Dre, is another
item in his portflio.

The Forbes "Hip-Hop Cash Kings" list is determined by
earnings estimates calculated between June 2009 and June 2010, which
include income from record sales, digital downloads, touring, films, TV
shows, endorsements, books and other entertainment ventures.

Weird, 50 Cent didn't even make this year's list, after earning $20
million in 2009 to come in at #4, and $100 million in 2008 to
top the list.

Associated Press08/17/10 12:10 PM PDT

ATLANTA
— A predominantly black Atlanta church is facing foreclosure
and says banks aren't doing enough to keep churches like it open.

Higher
Ground Empowerment Center pastor Dexter Johnson says the bank has given
the church until Aug. 31 to pay up or move out. He says they're trying
to work with the lender to modify the loan, but suffered membership loss
and damage during the 2008 Atlanta tornado and don't have a lot of
resources.

Johnson and a coalition of clergy leaders of other
predominantly black churches believe banks are putting unfair pressure
on them.

Two weeks ago, a bank evicted Darryl Winston's southeast
Atlanta Church. Marshals dumped the church belongings in the parking
lot.

Winston believes as many as 40 other Atlanta churches like
his could be facing the same thing soon.
Johnson says the churches
want banks to realize they're more than just brick and mortar
buildings.

Back on December 8, 2009, the New
York Times ran a puff piece on the proposed Ground Zero mosque at
the site of a building hit in the World
Trade Center attacks. In that piece the following quote ran:

Despite the potential backlash against an Islamic
institution opening so
close to ground zero, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who already leads prayers
and reads from the Koran inside the
building, said that the location
was one of the project's key
selling points. "New York is the
capital of
the world, and this location close to 9/11 is iconic," said
the
61-year-old cleric, who is known for being a longtime critic of radical
Islam. Being in a building "where a piece of the wreckage fell," he
added, "sends the opposite statement to what happened on 9/11 ... We
want to push back against the extremists."

I
ran the piece back in December, as did a number of other on line journals like this.
Now that quote is gone. Poof.
The NY Times has since scrubbed
this telling remark, "New York is the capital of
the world, and this location close to 9/11 is iconic," and the
paragraph now reads:

The building has no sign that
hints at its use as a Muslim prayer
space, but these modest beginnings point to a far grander vision: an
Islamic center near the city’s most hallowed piece of land that would
stand as one of ground zero’s more unexpected and striking neighbors.
The
location was precisely a key selling point for the group of Muslims who
bought the building in July. A presence so close to the World Trade
Center, “where a piece of the wreckage fell,” said Imam Feisal Abdul
Rauf, the cleric leading the project, “sends the opposite statement to
what happened on 9/11.”
“We want to push back against the extremists,” added Imam Feisal,
61.

The Obama administration is planning to expand
opportunities for Americans to travel to Cuba. The policy… is meant to
loosen restrictions on academic, religious and cultural groups that were
adopted under President George Bush and return to the “people to
people” policies followed under President Bill Clinton… Those policies,
officials said, fostered robust exchanges between the United States and
Cuba, allowing groups … to share expertise as well as life experiences.

In fact, these groups shared much more than “life experiences.” The Times
is much; too bashful in detailing just
how “robust” these exchanges with Cuba had gotten during the
Clinton administration.

Mr. and Mrs. Kendall Myers, Cuban spies in the
State Dept.

No mention by the Times, for instance, that the deepest
and most damaging penetration of the U.S. Defense Department by an enemy
agent resulted precisely from all that “sharing” by the Clinton
administration with Stalinist Cuba, a regime Obama’s very State
Department lists as a State Sponsor of Terrorism. Schizophrenia by any
other name

“Castro poses no significant threat to the U.S. or any of his
hemispheric neighbors. No evidence exists that Cuba is trying to foment
any instability in the Western Hemisphere,” asserted the Clinton Defense
Department’s “National Intelligence Estimate on Cuba.”

This report was authored by the Clinton Defense Department’s Ana
Belen Montes, a champion of cultural and educational exchanges with
Cuba, in which she partook abundantly. During the Clinton
administration Ana Montes was awarded the “Certificate of Distinction,”
the third-highest honor awarded by any U.S. Intelligence agency. Her
diligence, brilliance and sagacity led the Clinton team to promote Ana
Montes to head the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Cuba division, an ideal
post to better champion her enlightened policy of “openness” and
“sharing” with Castro’s Cuba.

Ana Belen Montes, Cuban spy in the Defense Dept.

Ana Montes had access to all U.S. intelligence on Cuba and led
briefings on Capitol Hill, at the State Department and the Pentagon
regarding her enlightened Cuban policy. “On Cuba,” one government
official said. “Montes was who you went to.”

Thus pampered, promoted and honored under Clinton, Montes today
serves a 25-year prison sentence for “Conspiracy to Commit Espionage.”
On September 20 2001, (under Bush) Ms. Montes was arrested by the FBI as
a Castro spy and accused of the same crime as Ethel and Julius
Rosenberg. After conviction, only a plea bargain allowed the Clinton
Administration’s top “Cuba Expert” to escape their fate.

“Montes passed some of our most sensitive information about Cuba
back to Havana,” said then Undersecretary for International Security,
John Bolton.

“Ana Montes compromised our entire program against Cuba, electronic
as well as human,” admitted Joel F. Brenner, National
Counterintelligence Executive.

The Montes case is widely considered the most damaging espionage case
since the “end” of the Cold War.
In May 2003 14 more Cuban spies were uncovered and booted from the
U.S. Most had worked under diplomatic cover while “robustly exchanging”
all those “life experiences” with their American hosts.

“It’s a way (Obama’s forthcoming Cuba policy) over the long term to
allow Americans and Cubans to have contact, even as their governments
continue to hash out a lot of seriously thorny issues,” The Times
thus quotes Ms Julia Sweig, resident Cuba Expert at the Council on
Foreign Relations.

Such contact was particularly useful to Ms Sweig, whom the Times
habitually consults and quotes on all matters Cuban. “In Cuba many
people spent long hours with me, helped open doors I could not have
pushed through myself, and offered friendship and warmth to myself
during research trips to the island… Elsa Montero and Jose Gomez Abad championed
this project.” That’s Julia Sweig in the acknowledgements to her
book, Inside the Cuban Revolution.

Bylooking
in their very archives, the Timescan
discover that the Cubans who provided such “friendship and warmth” to Ms
Sweig, who “opened so many doors” and who “championed” her project are
Castro agents of considerable notoriety. Had J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI not
nabbed them in time, 9/11 might be remembered as the second-worst
terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Big
Journalism already reportedthe details of the explosions
Ms Sweig’s “champions” plotted for Macy’s, Gimbel’s and Bloomingdale’s
on Black Friday 1962.

Interestingly, the very Defense Intelligence officer (retired Lt.
Col. Christopher Simmons) who helped nab Ana Montes and the 14 other
Castro spies alleges that Times favorite, Ms. Julia Sweig, serves as an Agent
of Influence for the Castro regime. “For Cuba, being able to
influence policy and elite opinion-makers is equally important–possibly
even more important– than recruiting spies with access to intelligence
information,” explained Norman Bailey, a high official in the U.S.
Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The Times article also mentions that this “opening” might be
a doggie treat to reward Castro for good behavior: “Others described it
(the forthcoming Obama Policy) as a nod to President Castro’s stunning
decision last month to begin releasing dozens of political prisoners.”

Indeed, the Times has a long and illustrious history of
being “stunned” by Fidel Castro. That the newspaper swallowed Castro’s
latest about “releasing” political prisoners is no surprise. In fact,
this very month, Castro unleashed a fresh
wave of repression against his subjects.

If only the Times would consult more reliable “Cuba
Experts,” its editors might learn of such developments. Some brave black
Cubans just smuggled out some tapes and videos of what the
Stalinist/Apartheid Castro regime has
been up to lately. The Times, needless to say, cannot be
bothered. They’re much too busy interviewing Manhattan-based “Cuba
Experts.”

Within
these last couple of months political issues have been heating up. Just in a
recent poll it was stated that Obama’s approval
rating is down, the Daily
Beast issued an article about a month ago gathering sixteen economist
giving suggestions that we might need another stimulus. Not to mention these
crazy oil spills, in Michigan and of course let us not forget BP in the Gulf Coast,
Obama’s Iraq (Afghanistan).

Although
those issues are important for right now I would like, for a temporal moment,
to push them to the side. There is one issue that I feel I’ve been asked a lot
about; I don’t know why! I am not an
expert on this issue, but as I thought about it I do have a couple of comments to
add to this very public topic...immigration!

1. In my opinion the government should issue all individuals
who are potentially illegal in the US working visas. This would allow the
families who are here to get jobs and legally support their families. In
addition, this would allow them time to take the necessary steps in becoming a
legal citizen.

2. In addition to the visa’s the government should allow
temporary funding to anyone who wants to start a non-profit organization
teaching Latinos English. This would allow Latinos to communicate in an English
speaking country and enhance their chances in the job market.

3. We should protect the borders from incoming Latinos. The
White House has reported that the amount of Latinos trying to cross the border is
in decline.

4. When we as a country feel the need to just start
deporting people we are breaking up families. I think that it is inhumane for
people to break up families in the name of “up-holding the Law”. The Tri-personal God has given us family for a
reason and it is a gift of common grace. Therefore, to break up anyone’s family
is a violation of all humanity.

A. If our government continues
down this path of mass deportation the children of those families will become
orphans in the U.S. And the number of
orphans in our country will increase! If that happens there will be more
children on the street!

5. Businesses should be held accountable for hiring illegal immigrants
who are “new” to the country. Businesses exploit the fact that these
individuals need jobs, so they pay them very little for regular labor, which is
modern day slavery!

6. Anyone who is not white should be very sensitive to this
topic of immigration. America has a history of wanting people out of the
country who are not American born! Just food for thought….

“Compassion does not mean that you overlook truth, rather
true compassion upholds truth in the law while having a hand to help and
uplift” (Delonte Harrod).

Haiti’s electoral commission said late Tuesday that it was postponing
its ruling on who will be allowed to run for president in November
elections, leaving hip hop artist Wyclef Jean’s candidacy in limbo.

A statement from the commission, known as the CEP, said it would
postpone the announcement until Friday.
The delay was the latest turn in the fledgling presidential race in
this earthquake-torn country. Jean – one of dozens of candidates vying
for the office – said he was in hiding Tuesday after receiving death
threats.

The musician disclosed the threats in a series of e-mails to The
Associated Press, revealing few details. Jean said he received a phone
call telling him to get out of Haiti and that he was in hiding in a
secret location in the Caribbean country.

The Haitian-born Jean said he did not know whether the commission
would approve his candidacy, but there have been questions about whether
he meets the residency requirements to run.

“We await the CEP decision but the laws of the Haitian Constitution
must be respected,” he said in one of a flurry of e-mails.

Later in the evening, Jean sent the AP a one-word e-mail: “Hope!”

The CEP’s decisions – or lack thereof – sparked small protests
throughout Port-au-Prince. During one peaceful march near the CEP office
Tuesday afternoon, several dozen young men marched and sang in the
rain.
Later in the evening, a main road in and out of the city was blocked
by burning tires.

Haiti’s Constitution requires candidates to have lived in the country
for the five consecutive years before the election. Jean knew his U.S.
upbringing could be a roadblock to his candidacy, but has said his
appointment as a roving ambassador by President Rene Preval in 2007
exempts him from the residency requirement.
Lawyers for the musician were at the CEP headquarters seeking to
argue his case, he said.

More than 30 people had filed to run for president of a country still
struggling to recover from the Jan. 12 earthquake, which destroyed
thousands of buildings and killed an estimated 300,000 people. The
candidacies of some 20 people were contested, the CEP announced; in
order to properly decide on their eligibility, the group said it needed
more time to investigate.

The CEP had been expected to publish the list of candidates earlier
Tuesday but spokesman Richardson Dumel said the eligibility requirements
of a number of candidates were still under review.

Haiti’s president will preside over the spending of billions in
foreign reconstruction aid in a country with a long history of political
turmoil. Preval is not permitted to run for re-election.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton was in Port-au-Prince to meet with
the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission. The group moved a step closer to
implementing a set of priorities aimed at helping the country rebuild.
On Tuesday, it announced more than $1.6 billion in projects, including a
$500 million plan to overhaul the country’s failed education system.

Just reading through the NYTimes article Cleared,
and Pondering the Value of 27 Years. I'm not sure how much play
this story is getting in the US, but it hasn't been on the news radar
here in Canada (not that it should be....), but this story really
touched me for a variety of reasons.

Imprisoned for the past 27 years for a rape crime that he did not
commit, Michael A. Green is in the process of clearing his name and
thinking about whether or not the offer of $2.2 million is worth the
past 3 decades of imprisonment, abuse, and nonexistence in the
functioning world.

For me, this "offer" and injustice strikes all the wrong chords...and
reveals a lot about our flawed judicial system.....

There is no amount of money that can compensate for a lifetime
(at the very least, mine!) of living in prison....and Texas' offer
of $2.2 million (would it be taxed by Texas as well??!!?!?) is almost a
slap in Michael's face. The state of Texas has committed a HUGE
injustice here, and I really hope Michael has a no-holds barred attorney
to file a massive lawsuit.

The article mentioned that Michael was offered a 5 year term if he
had pled guilty. How can a justice system offer a sentence of 5 years
in exchange for the admission of guilt.....but force a sentence of 75
years to the same man for the same crime when he says he's
innocent?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?

And what about the victim? I'm sure she's quite upset at having
identified the wrong person for the crime - but there's no justice for
her because those who raped her 27 years ago cannot be charged because
the statute of limitations has expired.

On the same note, I'm just wondering....is there some type of
accountability in place that victims have to consider (like a penalty of
some sort.....) when pointing the finger? I sympathize with the
victim, whose emotions were probably running very high, and she wanted
her rapists behind bars...I totally get that. But, when identifying
someone once or twice in a lineup is all that a victim has to do to put
someone behind bars for 75 YEARS, I'd hope that the victim is pretty
sure....or that the law protects those who may be falsely accused for a
crime they didn't commit.

What is the state of Texas doing to ensure Michael's safe,
comfortable and well-supported return to a highly technological
functioning society, 27 years after he was removed? Is there a
therapist, life coach, or support system that the state is putting in
place for Michael...or are they satisfied by merely writing this off ?

An investigation, yes — except the investigating Queen Nancy wants to
do is into the opponents of the proposed mosque
near Ground Zero:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, called
for an investigation of those who are protesting the building of the
Ground Zero Mosque on Tuesday. She told
San Francisco’s KCBS radio:
“There is no question there is a concerted effort to make this a
political issue by some. And I join those who have called for looking
into how is this opposition to the mosque being funded,” she said. “How
is this being ginned up that here we are talking about Treasure Island,
something we’ve been working on for decades, something of great interest
to our community as we go forward to an election about the future of
our country and two of the first three questions are about a zoning
issue in New York City.”

Pelosi isn’t concerned in the least with how a guy who was a restaurant
waiter just a few years ago and rented apartments on
commission since came up with $4.8 million to buy the lot for the mosque
— but many 9/11 families who are organizing a protest of the location
of the mosque are highly suspect in the Botox-addled mind of Nancy
Pelosi.

Update: Pelosi & Company might end up having to
investigate New York area construction companies too, because according
to Bill
O’Reilly: “That mosque… not gonna get built. Because
not one construction crew in this city, in New Jersey, in Connecticut,
is going to lift a hammer to build it.”

Nathan Daschle, executive director
of the Democratic
Governors Association, issued the following statement today
regarding a $1 million dollar contribution from News Corp., parent
company of Fox News, to the Republican Governors Association.

"By
contributing $1 million to the Republican Governors Association, Fox
has crossed a bright line. Fox can no longer pretend that it is a ‘fair
and balanced’ news organization when Rupert Murdoch greenlights a
million dollar contribution to defeat Democratic governors.

“Time
and time again, Fox News has defended itself against accusations that
it is nothing more than a tool of the Republican Party. We know now that
the reality is so much worse: they’re bankrolling the GOP. FOX's news
division is ignoring the fact that its own parent company made a direct
and unprecedented partisan contribution to defeat Democrats. This is
hypocrisy at its worst, and is a sad day for all of us who believe that
an independent and impartial media is vital to our democracy.

“Not
only does this contribution severely compromise Fox's news reporting,
but it even breaks Fox’s own promise to its shareholders that it won't
give money to benefit office holders.

“While it might be naive to
think this will ever happen, we can only hope that Fox will own up to
the activities and that its stable of opinion hosts like Glenn Beck and
Bill O’Reilly will do the right thing and call on their company to
return the contribution.”

Rod
Blagojevich is not exactly Al Capone but not exactly innocent either.
Image from Wikimedia Commons.

The trial of disgraced former governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich
has just concluded. After two weeks of deliberation, the grand jury
returned only a single guilty verdict. Blagojevich was only convicted of
one count of lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Sentencing
will soon follow, and he could face up to five years in prison for
giving false statements to government officials. Federal prosecutors
have already announced they fully intend to re-try Blagojevich.

Jury renders verdict after two weeks

Rod
Blagojevich was arrested two years ago in connection with federal
surveillance that indicated he was trying to sell the seat in the United
States Senate vacated by Barack Obama. In the time between then and the
verdict, he was impeached and removed from office. He faced 24
different accusations of corruption. After two weeks, the jury, which
had been mostly deadlocked before then, came back with only one clear
verdict. The judge declared a mistrial on 23 of the 24 accounts and
announced the guilty verdict on one count of providing a false statement
to the FBI.

U.S. Attorney will file for a retrial

According to the New York Times, officials from the
U.S. Attorney’s office said they will attempt to retry Blagojevich. He
was still convicted, after all, of one count of lying to the FBI. Making
false statements to the FBI is a federal crime, that carries a fine of
up to $250,000 or up to five years in prison, or both. Some people might
be hoping for both.

Balgojevich seen as stereotypical Chicago politician

Chicago, Ill., has a long history of political corruption. The
previous governor before Rod Blagojevich, George Ryan, was also removed
from office and convicted. Ryan was sent to federal prison for
corruption. It’s unknown what the fate of Rod Blagojevich will be, as he
still has a second trial in his future. He could end up serving all
five years in prison.Further Reading

The
future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is being debated this
week at a housing summit in Washington, D.C. Considering that the
government-run companies are currently backing a large percentage of
loans–9 out of 10 new loans when the Federal Housing Administration is
also included according to the Wall Street Journal–the outcome
is important to future first-time homebuyers, or those looking for their
next home.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said today that
the U.S. government is expected to guarantee mortgages for the near
term, though there must be a system in place to prevent another
breakdown of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Reports indicate that early
next year, President Obama will be revealing a new housing proposal.

About two years, Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac were taken over by the government. WSJ says that a total of
$148 billion has been put into the mortgage companies by the federal
government since then.
It is unclear how Fannie and Freddie will
operate down the road, however many say that the government should no
longer be aiding the companies. Geithner is urging a bipartisan solution
to rebuild the housing system. Also, policy makers are trying to
determine how private capital can enter into the solution moving
forward.

SCLC TODAY

TODAY'S NEWS NJ

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Is genealogy a hobby or not for people of African Descent?

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